During the 1950s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still felt. John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen, was director of the CIA. This book places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop of American history and asks: Why does the United States behave as it does? Propelled by a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions, the Dulles brothers launched violent campaigns against foreign leaders they saw as threats, leading to the Vietnam War and laying the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and countries such as Cuba and Iran.